Account-keeping device.



PATENTED APR. 28, 1908.

nilllllllullulllllllltill l. \I

W. W; ROBINSON. ACCOUNT KEEPING DEVIGB. APPLICATION FILED JAN 12 1904unrrnn srnrns PATENT orrion WILLIAM W. ROBINSON, OF DES MOINES, IOWA,ASSIGNOR TO IDEAL MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF DES MOINES, IOWA, ACORPORATION OF IOWA.

ACCOUNT-KEEPING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April as, 1908.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM W. RoBINsoN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Des Moines, in the county of Folk and State of Iowa, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Account-Keeping Devices,of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of account-keeping devices in which aseries of file-holders are supported in a cabinet, each jElle-holderbeing designed to receive account My object is to provide each of thefileholders of an account keeping device of this class with anindicator, normally in a position from which it must be moved in orderto withdraw from or deposit a file within its holder, so that anoperator using the fileholder cannot neglect to move its indicator, andso that it may, after a certain period of use, be certainly determinedby a glance at the indicator, which of the file-holders have been usedduring said period.

My invention consists in the combination with the cabinet andfile-holders of the indi cators, as hereinafter more fully described,pointed out in my claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings inwhich:

Figure 1 shows a detail perspective view of a part of one of theindividual account file holders showing an indicator in poistionthereon. Fig. 2 shows a detail perspective view of part of an individualaccount file holder that portion of the indicator which is arranged onthe inside of the fileholder. Fig. 3 shows a perspective view of anindividual account file holder having a modified form of indicator to beoperated by the movement required for opening the file holder, thedotted lines indicating the position of the cover when opened and theadjusted position of the indicator. Fig. 4 shows a perspective view of acabinet provided with a number of compartments and also showing a numberof individual account file holders in said compartments, and illustratesa modified form of indicator attached to the cabinet itself and operatedupon the removal of an account file-holder. The compartments of thecabinet from which the file-holders have been removed have theirindicators set to position for indicating the removal of thefile-holders. Fig. 5 shows an enlarged vertical sectional view of anumber of partitions in the cabinet with the indicators attachedthereto, one partition being provided with a file-holder, the indicatorfor this compartment being closed and the other partition being providedwith an indicator in an open position. Fig. 6 shows a detail sectionalview of a portion of the file holder illustrated in Fig. 3 with thecover in an open position showing the spring attached to the cover andin position for forcing the indicator to indicating position. Dottedlines show the cover in its closed position and the position of thespring when the cover is closed.

Referring to the accompanying drawing, the cabinet is seen to becomposed of a bottom 10, top 11, sides 12 and 13, and a verticalpartition 14. Between the partition 14 and the sides 11, I have'arrangeda series of horizontal partitions 15, the forward edges of whichpreferably project a slight distance beyond the upri ht partition andsides.

Each file-holder preferably comprises a bottom 16,-and a rigid front 17secured to the bottom. Said rigid front is preferably provided with acard 18 designed to receive the name of the person with whom the accountis to be kept. Hinged to the top of the front 17 is the cover 19 andbetween the parts 16 and 19 are the files indicated by the numeral 20.These file-holders are preferably of such size and shape that whenplaced in the compartments of the cabinet, the front ends of thefile-holders will stand flush with the front edges of the horizontalpartition so that each file-holder may readily be grasped between apersons thumb and fore-finger by grasping ends of the front of thefile-holder which projects beyond the sides and vertical partition ofthe cabinet.

My preferred form of indicator is shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and comprises ametal plate 21 secured to the face of the front 17 and provided with anumber of loops 22. The in dicator proper is made of a single piece ofspring wire and comprises two parallel end portions 23, the extreme endsof which are bent outward away from each other at 24. These end portions23 are slidingly mounted in the loops 22 and one of the end portions 23is bent inwardly at 25 and 25 said bent porti ons designed to engage thestaples 21 and be yieldingly held against them, to thereby retain theindicator at either its outer or inner limit. The central portion of theindicator is formed into a head 26 which exof the front 17.

tends a slight distance beyond the adjacent end of the file-holder. Saidhead projects forward beyond the front of the file-holder, and formedintegral with the head 26, is the indicator point 27 projecting acrossthe face The outer movement of the indicator is limited by the ends 24engaging the loop 22 and the inner movement is limited by the head 26striking the end of the front 17 When the indicator is at its outerlimit of movement, the point 27 stands close to the adjacent edge of thecard 18 and when the indicator is at its inner limit of movement, thesaid point 27 projects over the said card so that it may be readilyseen. In use with this position of the device and assuming that theindicator is at its outer limit of movement it will be in normalposition and will indicate the non-use of the file holder. When theoperator grasps the file-holder as required to draw it from the cabinet,he engages the head of the indicator and pushes it inward during themovement required for removing the file holder from the cabinet. Whenthe indicator is placed in this position it remains there during thetime the file holder is used and after the file-holder is returned tothe cabinet, and visibly indicates that the particular file-holder hasbeen used. It is practically impossible to remove the fileholder fromthe cabinet without setting the indicator to its position indicating theuse of the file.

In the modified form shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings I have provided aspring 28 secured by the rivet 29 to the under surface of the cover 19near the front end thereof. This spring projects forward beyond thefront 17 and then downwardly across the face of the front 17 This spring28 is normally in position with its front end portion at about rightangles to its body portion and the pivotal point of the hinged cover isa short distance under the cover. When the cover is moved from itsclosed position to its open position, which latter is indicated by solidlines in Fig. 6, the spring 28 will straighten out and in doing this, itwill push the indicator arm which it engages downwardly, thus throwingthe indicator point toward the center of the file holder and upwardly,as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 3. By having the pivotal point of thecover below the cover, the forward end of the spring 28 would besomewhat lower when the cover is open than when the cover is closed andby having the spring so arranged that it will straighten out as thecover is opened, its lower end will be much lower when the cover is openthan when closed. The indicator point 30 is pivoted to the front 17 andis provided with a right-angled extension or arm 31 which arm standsdirectly beneath the end of the spring 28, when the cover is closed andthe indicator in its nonindicating position, and when the cover is open,the indicator point is moved inwardly toward the center of the book andupwardly to position indicating the use of the file holder. ing theindicator in either of said positions by forming on the front 17 araised portion 32 in the path of the extension 31 so that said extensionin moving from one position to the other passes over the raised portionand it will be yieldingly held in either position on account of saidraised portion 32.

In the modified form shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 of the drawings, theindicator point is secured to the cabinet instead of to the fileholderand each indicator comprises a plate 33' fixed to the under surface ofthe horizontal partition 15. This plate is made of spring metal and isprovided with an oval loop 34 at its outer end, which loop projectsslightly beyond the partitions 15. The indicator point 35 is providedwith a flattened pin 36 admitted into the oval loop 34. When theindicator 35 is in a horizontal position, the fiattened pin 36 fits inthe oval loop 34 and thus holds the indicator in this position. Whenpressure is applied to the indicator 35 in a downward direction then thesides of the oval loop 34 are sprung apart and the indicator 35 islowered to the position shown at the bottom of Fig. 5.

In practical use and assuming that a cabinet be provided with a seriesof file-holders, one for each party with whom an account is kept, andassuming further that the keeping of such accounts includes the transferof the individuals balances on the files at the end of a certain period,as for instance at the close of a days business. The indicators arefirst set to their normal position, thenwhen any file-holder is used,its indicator must be moved from normal position before files may beinserted in or removed from a file-holder. In all of the forms shown,such movement is necessary and is not in any way dependent on the memoryof the operator. At the end of a days business and assuming that onlyten per cent. of the file-holders have been used, the operator maycertainly determine at a glance which ones have been used, and a vastamount of time is saved to the person transferring the accounts, becausehe need only look at the files of those holders which have had theirindicators moved from normal to indicating positions.

I claim as my invention:

1. A device for use in keeping accounts comprising a casing, a series offile-holders therein, each adapted to carry loose files, and anindicator for each file-holder normally in a position from which it mustbe moved in order to withdraw from or deposit a file within its holder,whereby the indicator is certainly changed from normal to indicatingposition whenever access is had to said file, without having to rememberto make such I have provided means for supportchange, and whereby it maybe certainly determined, after a certain period, at a glance which fileholders have been used during said period.

2. A device for use in keeping accounts comprising a casing, a series offile-holders, each adapted to carry files, and indicators for thefile-holders, each normally in position from which it must be moved inorder to Withdraw from or deposit a file Within its holder, whereby themovement of the indicator from normal osition is not dependent on thememory of the operator, and whereby after a certain period it may becertainly determined at a glance Which file-holders have had theirindicators moved from normal position during said period.

3. A device for use in keeping accounts comprising a casing, afile-holder therein adapted to carry files, and an indicator mounted onthe file-holder normally in a position from which it must be moved inorder to have access to its contents, Wherebythe movement of theindicator from normal position is not dependent upon the memory ofdicator has been moved from its normal position to its indicatingposition.

4. In a device of the class described, the combination of a series offile holders, and an indicator for each file holder, said indicatorbeing normally in a non-indioating position and designed to be set to anindicating position by the o erators act in obtaining access to the fileho der.

5. In a device of the class described, the combination of a cabinet, aseries of fileholders in the cabinet, and an indicating device for eachfile-holder, normally in a nonindicating position, and designed to beautomatically set to indicating position When access is had to thefile-holder.

WILLIAM WV. ROBINSON.

I/Vitnesses:

J. RALPH ORWIG, W. R. LANE.

